Night of the Living Dead Review

A small group of strangers, outnumbered by a legion of flesh-eating creatures, cornered into a house with little supplies; this may sound like you're typical zombie movie formula, and yeah, you know what? It is. But this is the one that started them all. George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead is not only a quintessential zombie movie, but it is THE zombie movie. A yearly trip to their father's gravesite turns deadly for brother and sister Johnny and Barbra. Johnny pretty much seals his fate when he taunts Barbra, saying "They're coming to get you..." And sure enough, enter zombie. Her brother tries but fails to be the hero, and ends up hitting his head on a gravestone and dying, leaving Barbra to run to the car, and then into what looks like an abandoned house when she realizes she doesn't have the keys. Enter our hero, Ben, who brings Barbra into safety. Ben is black, which it was very controversial for a movie in 1968 to have a black hero when the rest of the cast was white. Realizing they where not alone, Ben and Barbra discover the house has a basement and is housing couple Harry, Helen, and their daughter Karen, who has suffered a zombie bite, as well as teenagers Tom and Judy. Ben, realizing that enclosing themselves in a cellar would seal their fate as meals, tries to convince everyone to head upstairs. When Tom, Judy, Ben, and Harry try to reach the car to make an escape, Tom spills gas on the car, causing it to explode, killing Tom and Judy. Harry beats Ben back into the house, attempting to lock him out, failing to do so but successfully angering Ben, who beats Henry to a pulp. Surprise, surprise, just as they regroup, Karen awakens and turns her father into a snack. Helen manages to escape the fleet of zombies attacking but Barbra is paralyzed once again when she realizes Johnny is one of them, letting the zombies carry her away. Helen soon suffers a same fate, dropping to the floor in shock when she realizes her husband has been eaten by their daughter. So where does that leave our hero, Ben? Well, in one of the most pessimistic endings to a movie ever, Ben awakes the next morning unscathed, as he hears the police closing in on the house, shooting any remaining zombies. Unfortunately, they mistake him for the living dead, and shoot him in the head.

Despite how cheesy a black and white zombie movie, with it's outdated, lo-fi special effects and camera angles sounds, Night of the Living Dead was a haunting success, holding it's own against Zombieland and Dawn of the Dead. The make-up used to denote the transformation from human to zombie was so subtle, it was almost as if anyone could be mistaken as a zombie at any given moment which made the film eerie. Also the pessimistic ending added to how seriously the movie should be taken, rather than making the film campy, which is excellent because this is a lower budget film. This is definitely a classic zombie flick that should be enjoyed for years to come.